


Small Courtesies

by funkmetalalchemist



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Height Differences, Humor, M/M, One-Sided Relationship, way too much blushing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:09:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funkmetalalchemist/pseuds/funkmetalalchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi thinks Eren is mocking his height. Eren blushes. A lot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Courtesies

Levi hadn’t really taken notice until a while after Eren had been working with the Scouting Legion. It wasn’t that he didn’t already know, but once it was actually brought to the forefront of his attention, he could not seem to let it go.

Eren was taller than him.

Levi knew all too well what his height was. He had endured years of jabs at his height when he had first enlisted and it wasn’t until he had finally become Captain that the jokes, the snide remarks finally seemed to disappear. Of course, his friends still occasionally ruffled his hair or placed a hand on his shoulder, but they had informally been given permission to make a few minor jokes at the expense of Levi’s height when they had agreed to endure his friendship.

Eren, however, had not yet earned it. And here he was, just rubbing it in Levi’s face.

It had started with the tritest thing. A polite gesture, even. And Levi had never been quite so pissed off at a moment of kindness between comrades.

Slow days, for Levi, meant cleaning. When there was nothing else to do, there was always some cleaning to do. After he had worked at one room in the headquarters for a few hours, Levi ran out of soap. It was in the supplies closet in the second floor corridor, as he went to get a new bar of soap, that it happened. As Levi went on the tips of his toes, struggling to reach the top shelf, where the spare soap was stored, Eren walked by.

“What are you doing, Captain?” Eren asked, slowing his pace to a halt behind Levi.

Levi let out a huff of breath. “Just practicing my stretches, Jaeger.” Eren let out a light chuckle. He always laughed when Levi quipped. After what was about to ensue, Levi would wonder if Eren really thought his quips here funny (he would be the only one who did) or if maybe he was just pretending, just laughing at Levi’s stature.

It was quiet for a few seconds. The calm before the storm.

“Here, let me get that,” Eren said, coming up behind Levi, placing a hand on his shoulder and easily reaching up to grab a bar of soap and handing it down to Levi with a smile. Then, Eren turned and left, whistling quietly.

Those five words were burning, echoing in Levi’s ears. He stood frozen, still on his tip-toes, a bar of soap (one of the few creature comforts he allowed himself) sitting in his hands, the only mark of a cruel betrayal by a boy he himself had deemed trustworthy.

Levi shook himself. He was overreacting, of course. Eren had no intention of belittling Levi. He certainly bore no ill will to the man who had saved his life on multiple occasions. Levi closed the supply closet door, then brought his hand to cover the bar of soap still sitting in his left hand. He told himself he was being idiotic.

But was he really?

Over the following weeks, as Levi went about business as usual, he kept experiencing little flashes of Eren flaunting his height, every time they would interact. When the two of them volunteered to get firewood, Eren offered Levi the smaller of the two horses available to travel into the woods. When Levi was watching the soldiers joke around during supper, Eren came up behind him and stopped next to him, resting his elbow on Levi’s shoulder. When Levi came indoors after some sparring on a windy day, Eren wordlessly looked down at the top of Levi’s head and fixed a misplaced hair. When Levi went to fix a doorframe that had cracked, Eren insisted on taking over the job.

Was Levi overreacting? All of these things, all of these seemingly polite or friendly gestures, all of them began to seem more and more like gestures of dominance or infantilization. Levi grew more and more frustrated with the boy, and more upset with himself for having contemplated allowing Eren into his circle of friends (more of a triangle consisting of Hanji, Erwin and himself at the moment). At one point, the affronted Levi had had enough.

“Enough.” Levi demanded quietly as Eren walked into a door of the commons with a small ladder.

Eren laughed.

“I mean it, Eren. Put it down.” Levi watched as the expression on Eren’s face fall from confused to wounded.

“What are you talking about?” Eren’s voice cracked.

“I need you to stop belittling me. Stop mocking my height. I am your captain and you need to respect that. Once was barely acceptable, but you have been treating me like a child for weeks now and enough is enough.” Levi spoke in a calm, steady, even voice as he watched Eren’s expression drift back into the realm of confused.

“What am I missing here?”

“The gestures, Eren!” Levi finally rose his voice. He caught himself quickly and recovered. “Giving me the shorter horse, fixing my hair. You grabbed something off of a shelf for me, something I easily could have done myself. And now you come in here with a ladder. What have these been? Ways of letting me know I’m not tall enough? Trying to show me your superiority? I am your captain, Eren. You need to respect that. Please.” Levi finally finished.

Eren stared at him for a few seconds. Suddenly, the silence was broken the beginning of quiet giggles. Eren was laughing. Eren was laughing at a direct order from Levi. Levi had no idea how to react.

“You really are oblivious, aren’t you?” Eren whispered. Now it was Levi’s turn to look confused. His eyebrow raised. “You really think that all these things I’ve been doing, all of them have been acts of _malice_? Wow, someone has a complex.” Eren gave a derisive bark of a laugh.

“ _Pardon_?” Levi demanded, shocked.

“I am being nice, Levi. Polite, kind. I thought we were friends so I’ve been trying to, I don’t know, bond with you. I’m trying to help you out around here, trying to make your life a little bit easier, because I-“ Eren scoffed loudly. “And this ladder is for me to change the candles on the chandelier, they’re almost entirely gone! I was going to do it for you because I thought you had seemed upset lately and I thought that you would appreciate it. You probably would have noticed what I’m doing if you hadn’t been so preoccupied with the notion that someone who actually cares about you is just, what, mocking you for sport?” Eren reached up to pull exasperatedly at his hair and groaned into his hands. He turned and made his way toward the door. “I’ll be in my room, _sir_.” He said, the last word full of scorn.

* * *

 

“I just don’t understand, Hanji. The brat won’t even talk to me now. As if I’m the one who’s at fault here!” Levi was in Hanji’s quarters, pacing, his arms crossed. Levi finally lifted his gaze from the wood floors to look at his friend. She was smiling at him.

“What? What is it?” Levi demanded, striding toward her.

“I’m just realizing why you didn’t see it earlier. It would have been really obvious if you would have had a relatively normal childhood like the rest of us.” Hanji was still smiling as she took a sip of wine.

“What is obvious about this situation?” Levi was now standing a foot in front of Hanji, staring down at her sitting form, his eyebrows knitted in frustration.

“His motive. You know, for doing all those things.” Hanji looked up at him, her smile widening. Levi stared at her expectantly. Hanji stared back.

“…Which was what?” Levi asked, his voice flat.

“Our little titan appears to have a crush on one of his superiors.” Hanji laughed.

Levi stared at her, waiting for the punch line. Hanji just took another sip of wine. Levi did not move for several seconds. Then, finally, the pallor of his face began slowly turning pink.

“A crush.” Levi repeated.

“Mm-hmm!” Hanji beamed up at him. Levi slumped forward one step, then swiveled to fall into a seat next to Hanji.

Levi took in a breath as if he were about to start in on a speech, but stopped short. What was he supposed to say to that?

“Why- how can you tell?” Levi asked, willing the pink of his cheeks to disappear. He hadn’t blushed since he was 6 years old.

“Well, first, he told me. Second, he talks about you all the time. He went straight to me after he spoke to you. Wouldn’t shut up about how stupid and hard-headed you are. But he was blushing even worse than you are! That could have been from the yelling, though…”

“He told you that he…” Levi gestured with his hand, rather than saying the word out loud.

“Yeah, a while ago. It was me who suggested he try and do some nice things for you, you know, try and get you to warm up to the kid a little. I assumed that you would like it, not attack him for it. Kid tore me a new asshole when you yelled at him for it.” Hanji shook her head and took another sip.

“He’s a kid, Hanji. Why would you encourage it?” Levi’s head had descended into his hands and the words came out muffled.

“Everyone here needs something to hold onto. Something to keep them grounded, sane. I have my passion for finding out the secrets of the titans, you have your passion for cleanliness or whatever, and Eren Jaeger has a crush on his captain.” Hanji stated matter-of-factly.

Levi pondered on this. He had been considering just walking up to the boy and letting him know that any sort of romance between them was unacceptable. But what if that just cut the string that was keeping Eren tethered to sanity?

“What am I going to do, Hanji?” Levi whispered.

“You’re going to apologize to him. And then, when you’re done with that, you’re going to pretend you have no idea that he’s got a crush, and you’re going to go about business as usual.”

“Just… like that? Just let it go?”

“Precisely.”

“Mm.”

Hanji shoved his shoulder playfully. “God, you’re like 12 years old, aren’t you? Go do it, idiot. Get it over with.” Levi gave an extended exhale before pushing himself up. As he walked toward the door, he turned back to look at Hanji, who made a little “keep-going” gesture as she smiled at him broadly. Levi sighed and left the room.

It took him longer than he thought he would to find Eren, because the last place Levi would think to look for Eren was in Levi’s own room. Eren was sitting on the bed, slumped over with his arms crossed in his lap. His head shot up as Levi entered the room and he stumbled to his feet.

“Levi, I-“ Eren began before he was cut off by Levi’s raised hand.  Levi took a deep breath and began.

“I want to apologize for how I reacted earlier. I understand that you have just been trying to be kind toward me for the last few weeks, and I want you to know that my reaction of paranoia was unacceptable. I… appreciate all of the gestures.”

“I’m sorry that I made you feel like I was mocking you. And I’m sorry for yelling at you too, Captain. That won’t happen again.” Eren looked to his captain’s feet.

Levi scoffed. “While I doubt you won’t yell at me again, I thank you for the apology, as unnecessary as it is. I am the one at fault here, Eren. That much is obvious to me now.”

“And how did you come to that conclusion?” Eren looked to Levi, eyebrows raised.

“I spoke with Hanji. She explained why you were doing all those things.” Levi and Eren both froze at the same time, for very similar reasons. Levi, because he had accidentally revealed the secret Hanji had bound him to keep, and Eren because the secret he had bound Hanji to keep had been revealed. Both looked back to the floor.

“So, you know, then?” Eren’s entire face grew a deep pink, from chin up into his forehead, obscured by hair that long since needed a trim.

Levi managed to keep his blushing under control this time. Taking calm, even breaths, he replied.

“I do, yes. And it’s fine. Just don’t get any ideas, and we’re square. I won’t tell anyone, and I won’t bring it up if you don’t.” Levi spoke in a business-like voice, avoiding anything resembling strong emotion.

Eren paused. “…Okay. Okay, yeah. God, I’m sorry about this, Levi.” Eren took a step back to sit on Levi’s bed again. Levi was at a loss. He supposed he ought to comfort Eren in some way, but after all he had done to take Eren’s kindness the wrong way, he wondered if there was a possibility Eren might react the same way to his own kindness. He haltingly raised his hand and placed it on Eren’s head.

The second his hand made contact with Eren’s hair, he regretted it. It felt, strange, forced. He pulled back the tips of his fingers, then put his hand fully back on Eren’s head. In a split-second decision, Levi tousled the brown hair gently as he grimaced at his hand. He withdrew his hand suddenly, and turned to leave the room. He decided not to look back at Eren, certain that his expression would be something akin to horror.

Behind him, Eren smiled, his cheeks tinged with pink.

**Author's Note:**

> Story idea came from an absolutely adorable drawing by Tara - you can view it here: http://yshaarj.tumblr.com/post/54319337944
> 
> Thanks to Katie and Cat for helping me out and being great at giving me feeback and using way too many height puns when we were trying to come up with a title/summary and I was... coming up short (rimshot)


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